[Charlie Southerland]

And in the news from London today:

A truck driver went out of control today on the bridge and accidentally ran over several jaywalkers, fatally killing some of them and injuring other stragglers. When the driver finally regained control of his vehicle, he tried to park his rig and crashed it into a fence. He apparently attempted to place change in the parking meter without success when a policeman attacked him for belligerence. The driver defended himself and thwarted the maniac Bobby, and tried to return peacefully to his damaged truck for more change. He was shot by other policemen for panhandling, which is illegal in that area.

Speculation ran rampant overnight as reports that terrorism was the cause of the incident, but other voices rejected that meme and one physician has already stated that the man suffered from hydrophobia onset while crossing the Thames, not Islamic radicalism as some have posited. The Islamic mayor of London has stated that there was no radicalism tied to the innocently wounded man, but struggled with a question from the press about the long tableware butterknife the man seems to have brandished at the policemen before he was shot and wounded. Best wishes for his immediate recovery. Members of the religion of peace are at his bedside, attempting to convince the police to remove his handcuffs. Updates to follow.

Update: Please stop sending flowers to the wounded man's room. The hospital can't find room to place them all. It seems that flowers are coming in droves from America. There is an account set up for the man at RBS. Please make your donations in cheques.




Update: English teacher and recent convert to religion of peace assumes room temperature from minor gunshot wounds wherein medical staff at trauma unit gives lackluster effort to save his life.

Update: Antwerp today. Mohammed R. arrested today trying to mow down citizens in the city. Antwerp is bordered closely by several waterways which suggests that Mohammed was suffering from an apparent onset of Hydrophobia as was the now-deceased London English teacher yesterday. It seems there is a connection of this hideous disease between the men. Other men related to these incidents are being quarantined for sixty-days to determine if there are any further infections.

There is no known cure for the disease.

[Ann Drysdale]

Charlie, that's vile.

But of course I may be over-reacting. Why don't you move it to Drills and Amusements, where someone might be amused by it.

[Nigel Mace]

I confess that I though it had wandered in from fiction - the flush (sic - or is that sick) variety.

[Adam Elgar]

I've been away from the Sphere for a while. Now I remember why. It only takes one or two to spoil things for the rest.

[Simon Hunt]

That's right, Adam.

I would remind colleagues here that Charlie single-handedly and at great length rendered useless a thread devoted to monitoring the Trump administration. He proved impervious to reasoned discourse, gentle teasing, open ridicule, and other strategies. He just kept firing off the same nonsense and eventually called for the extermination of those who disagree with him (in which number I am included).

I suggest, therefore--although the temptation is great and although I am here disobeying my own suggestion--that we'd be best served to ignore threads like this one.

I think we could probably have a worthwhile discussion of yesterday's attack, in which people of different political stripes might learn from one another and in which those in Britain might tell those not in Britain what they see (plus lots of the partisan shouting and position-staking that goes with the territory)... But it won't come on a thread like this that begins beyond the pale of reasonable discourse on this site.

[John Whitworth]

Oh I don't know. What is reasonable? The police have already said the attack was terrorist inspired and they have arrested eight people in Birmingham with that in mind. He may have been off his head of course but he was certainly an Islamic terrorist. In fact Islamic terrorists have already taken the credit, have they not?

We can discuss that, can't we?

[Roger Slater]

John, I think the vile part is using a terrorist attack as an occasion to show off one's questionable wit in a way designed not to provoke discussion but people.

[Adam Elgar]

Let's by all means discuss terrorism, policing, human nature, what you will.... but not in this thread.
There's very little to be said about one nut with a car and a knife, what ever Big Cause he might have wanted to justify his actions.

[John Whitworth]

Roger and Adam with the greatest respect (as my father used to say befre he was very rude) you don't want to discuss anything with anyone except those who agree with you.

The man is probably a nut, as you say, but nuts are attracted to Islamic terrorism more than any other kind and why is that?

Discussions about Human Nature seem rather futile unless this is to be a philosophy seminar.

[Adam Elgar]

John, I'll say this very simply, to make sure you have no excuse for wilfully misunderstanding me. Roger and I were objecting to the location of the discussion.
I hope that's clear.
If you want to dignify Charlie's appalling post by using it as the starting point for a serious discussion of a serious matter, then I'm even less convinced of your good faith than I was before.
But really you just want to hate and bait.